Alice Springs Set To Become Australia's Solar Capital
 | Alice Springs: Solar Cities funding will build on an established base to make the town Australia's unofficial solar capital. |
The unofficial capital of the Australian Outback, Alice Springs in Central Australia, is well on the way to also becoming the unofficial capital of solar Australia with the announcement that the town is to receive $12.3 million in funding provided by the Australian Federal Government's $75 million Solar Cities initiative and the Renewable Remote Power Generation Programme.
The consortium behind the successful bid will contribute an additional $17 million to the project, and represents a broad range of organisations including the Alice Springs Town Council, the Northern Territory Government, the Northern Territory Power and Water Corporation, the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre, the Arid Lands Environment Centre, Tangentyere Council and the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce.
The practical benefits of the Solar Cities project for the Alice Springs community will include:
- 225 residential and 5 commercial photovoltaic systems providing 1.3 megawatts of solar energy.
- 4 "iconic" solar power installations at the Alice Springs Airport, the Araluen Arts Precinct, the Town Pool and the Ilparpa Sewerage Treatment Facility.
- 1000 domestic solar hot water systems.
- 850 "walkthrough" energy audits to assist consumers with development better energy management which could deliver savings of up to 20% off future energy bills.
- 400 smart meters in 50 businesses and 350 homes, combined with a time-of-use tariff designed to encourage electricity consumers to reduce energy use at times of high demand on the grid.
The Federal Minister for the Environment, Malcolm Turnbull, believes that "Alice Springs has the ingredients for a successful Solar City - the highest concentration of sun in Australia, an international tourist hub with rich natural and cultural heritage, and a committed and enthusiastic consortium willing to put the project into action ... Alice Springs is a town that has embraced solar energy technology; half of its households already use solar hot water systems, and this support is expected to deliver annual savings of around 10,500kWh in electricity demand and 12,000 tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions."
Central Australia already has a solid and growing base of installed solar capacity, to be expected in an area comprising many small, remote communities located far from the electricity grid which also enjoys some of the highest insolation levels in Australia. As Minister Turnbull recognised, approximately half of Alice Springs households already use solar hot water. The remoteness of many Central Australian communities make PV systems a more attractive, practical and cost-competitive option than is the case in many urban situations. The Bushlight program, a project of the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs, has installed at least 90 PV energy systems in remote communities throught the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland since 2002. PV technology also has long-standing applications in Central Australia in communications and water pumping.
2007-07-01